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Cornish Health Money Spent in London

Published
by
the Pirate FM News Team
at
7:01am 22nd June 2012
(Updated 7:25am 22nd June 2012)

Pirate FM has learnt Cornwall is getting millions of pounds less for healthcare than other parts of the UK.

Every Primary Care Trust is allocated money from central government. But a report claims the Duchy suffered a £7 million shortfall last year.

Health Initiative Cornwall says some boroughs in London had almost £80 million extra.

Spokesman Graham Webster said it is a long-running problem, "Over the last few years, we've suffered to the total sum of in excess of two hundred million pounds. We've had pressures on our single district general hospital, evidence to indicate that we're poor performing on areas like stroke, and quite clearly that's come about as a result of the under-resourcing".

He thinks it has affected the historic debt at Treliske, "We believe that had we had our right and just and fair share, the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust would not have got into the situation that it's got into. How can it be logical that patients in Cornwall have a different need in terms of healthcare?"

St Ives MP Andrew George told Pirate FM that the situation needs urgent action, "All of our local health services are having to penny pinch all of the time. We have hard working, dedicated healthworkers in Cornwall who give their all. We want to make sure they're properly backed financially and that they're not overstretched all of the time, which is often the case."